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Juco  | Rankings  | 1/25/2013

Top 200 Junior College Prospects

Allan Simpson     
Photo: Perfect Game
2013 Junior College Top 50 Teams

No Projected First-Rounders,
 But Plenty of Talent in JC Crop

The 2013 junior-college season opens in select locations on Friday, and while there is no Bryce Harper (No. 1 overall pick, 2010) or even a projected first-rounder to spice up this year’s crop, there is still plenty of talent for scouts to bear down on over the next 2-3 weeks—or before the higher-profile NCAA Division I ranks open for business in mid-February.

Perfect Game has identified the Top 200 Prospects in this year’s JC class, and it is readily evident that pitching will be at the forefront. In all, it is expected that 50-60 junior-college players will be drafted in the first 10 rounds in June.

Howard College righthander David Gates, who went 2-0, 3.71 in 17 innings as a freshman for the Hawks and was a virtual unknown to scouts entering fall practice, has stormed to the top of the pack. The 6-foot-5, 215-pound righthander elevated his game to an entirely new level in the fall by flashing the best raw stuff among all junior-college arms. His fastball was 93-96 mph in his first outing for Howard, and later topped out at 99.

Gates is followed in order by No. 2-ranked Stephen Tarpley, a sophomore lefthander at Scottsdale (Ariz.) CC; No. 3 ranked Nic Pivetta, a sophomore righthander at New Mexico JC; and No. 4-ranked Teddy Stankiewicz, a freshman righthander at Seminole State (Okla.) JC.

Like Gates, Pivetta improved his stock by leaps and bounds in the fall after being passed over in the draft after his freshman year at New Mexico. The 6-foot-5, 215-pound Pivetta, a Canadian, exploded on the prospect stage with a fastball that jumped to 95-97 mph.

In contrast to the fast-rising Gates and Pivetta, Tarpley and Stankiewicz have more-established track records as they were both prominent unsigned picks in recent drafts.

An eighth-rounder of the Cleveland Indians in 2011 out of an Arizona high school, Tarpley chose to transfer to a junior college near his home after going 5-3, 3.22 (78 IP, 29 BB/67 SO) last spring as one of the nation’s top freshmen at Southern California. He ranks as possibly the most-polished pitcher in the current junior-college class, though his fastball, which tops at 93 mph, is a tick below that of either Gates or Pivetta.

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Stankiewicz, the only freshman of the quartet, was drafted in the second round out of a Texas high school last June. He subsequently turned down an offer from the New York Mets, and also decided against a college career at Arkansas in favor of pitching for Seminole State (Okla.) JC, the nation’s No. 3-ranked JC team. His fastball peaked at 94 mph in the fall.


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